Continuing teacher education for a’uwẽ uptabi and non-indigenous teachers: a proposal in search of training in interculturality

Abstract

The text portrays activities carried out during an extension course in Continuing Teacher Education for A’uwẽ (Xavante) Teachers from the Pimentel Barbosa Indigenous Land. It aims at giving visibility and making known both the research and extension work that this group of professors have already performed with this group of A’uwẽ uptabi teachers, and the recent proposal of continuing education from 2022 to 2024. We can also add another objective in this continuing education: training for indigenous and non-indigenous teachers aiming at intercultural education.   The course – pedagogical workshop for A’uwẽ uptabi teachers: the search for possible interculturality – happened at the Pimentel Barbosa Municipal Indigenous School in Pimentel Barbosa and is part of the research and extension course developed with the communities of this Indigenous Land. The methodology used follows phenomenological orientation inspired by Merleau-Ponty. It is open, organized with informal talks, expository and dialogue classes, bibliographic research, meetings with the communities involved, observations, and open interviews with teachers, students, leadership and tribe chiefs. In this text, besides tackling issues addressed in the 30-hour workshop, the new proposal of continuing education for A’uwẽ and non-indigenous teachers who participate in these two courses is presented: extension and research, was included. Thus, considering this workshop, I conclude that the difficulties are not only felt by the indigenous people, but also by us as educators, and this new proposal is an outreach in terms of training teachers for the indigenous school educational field – enlarged teacher training with a focus on the dimension of differences.